Angels Among the Clover
by SawyerRaleigh
Summary: Two strangers meet in a bar and discuss those they left behind. Two strangers are traveling somewhere together. Details inside. :P
1. Chapter 1

_Authors's Note: So originally in word I had this set up so that her speaking was on the left and his was on the right but that doesn't work on here. :P My apologies if it gets confusing._

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She had curly black hair and the tattoo of a four leaf clover above her ample cleavage.

He was blind in one eye and wore the mask of a smile that never left his lips.

As she stepped off the stage she made her way over to the bar where he was sitting.

He offered to buy her a drink and lit another cigarette.

She stared at his shadow on the ground.

"Something wrong?"

"I love birds, but I envy them."

"Why's that?"

"I've always wished I could fly away."

"Where would you go?"

"Somewhere I could be happy."

"Where would that be?"

"With him."

"What happened, if I may ask?"

"I was a government experiment, if you're willing to believe the darker deeds they commit."

He chuckled. "I know; I worked for them sometimes."

"They were trying to develop unusual powers in children but the only power I ever had was knowing the day I would die. I met him not long before that day. I loved him as soon as we met but I didn't want him to get hurt when I died so I resisted falling for him. In the end he won me over anyway. To this day I wish I hadn't wasted so much time that I could have spent with him."

"I take it you haven't seen him since then?"

"No, but I was a singer in bars then too. I keep hoping that someday he'll show up in the bar with that same old charming grin and things can go back to how they were."

"What if he's moved on?"

She smiled sadly. "It's selfish, but I hope he hasn't."

"Love is a selfish thing."

"You sound like you would know."

"I would."

Another song started and she grabbed his hand. "Let's dance."

"I'm afraid I'm not much of a dancer."

She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "then let's go someplace else".

"What about your soldier? I'd rather not get beat up if he arrives." He laughed.

"He was the best fighter in the military.:

"Impressive."

"He wouldn't last two seconds against you would he."

"Probably not."

"Have you ever failed to kill anyone?"

"Just one person."

"What happened?"

"I fell in love with him."

She sat back down.

"Those of my particular profession are always killed by the person they love most."

"Was he an assassin too?"

"No."

"What was he like?"

"Imagine the most innocent-hearted person you know."

"Okay."

"He was ten times more pure. At least before I met him."

"But he killed you?"

"He never had a choice."

"If that happened to the person I was thinking of it would break her."

"I'm sure it did break him." He smiled at his glass.

A tear slipped down her cheek.

He turned, surprised. "Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."

She rested a hand lightly against his cheek. "But to only know how to smile looks so much more painful… please let me cry for you."

He stared at her then began to laugh uncontrollably.

She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close, letting her tears drip onto his crisp white shirt.

When he finally stopped laughing he looked up into her green eyes.

"Please take me away. I want to be swept away…"

He kissed her hand, ignoring the familiar taste of blood.

The bartender turned around. "Hey it's closing ti-" She froze. Where the last two customers had been sitting there were only empty seats and a few sakura petals drifting slowly through the air.

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_A/N: If anyone didn't get it, this is Ora from Clover talking to Seishirou from Tokyo Babylon and X. :P I liked the idea of them meeting after death for some reason..._


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Not the same two characters as the first chapter. :P If you don't guess who they are, I say at the end.  
_

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The train attendant tried not to stare but there was something strange about the pair bound for the capital. At first he had worried for the girl's safety as she looked at least a good ten years younger than the man and his entirely black attire and cold attitude made him much more imposing than his relatively slight build and height would otherwise suggest. It was not until the attendant noticed that they both had incredibly green eyes with the same flecks of loneliness that he concluded that they must be related, siblings perhaps. But would siblings treat one another like such complete strangers? Did they not get along? There didn't seem to be any tension there, just a silence that neither of the two seemed to mind but that made the attendant uncomfortable every time he passed where they were sitting.

The girl was staring out the window the entire time, her arms on the window sill, chin resting in her leather gloved hands. He wondered if her hair was naturally that white blonde, especially if the man with her was her brother, as his was pitch black. The man was asleep but nothing about him seemed to be at rest.

It was not until it got to be too dark to see much out the window that the attendant saw the girl turn and for the first time seem to recognize the other's presence. The man himself had only just woken from his terse slumber with the sunset but seemed completely lost in his own thoughts. When the train stopped for the night the attendant watched them disembark without exchanging a word and make their way silently through the station. It wasn't until well after they had disappeared in the sea of sleepy faces that he realized they had never had any luggage and he began to wonder where they were really going.

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_A/N: Is Subaru and Sue! ^_^ Yes, it was labled as being a them pairing so I feel that somewhat gives away where this is going. But meh. Just go with it. Also- not to say I'm not all for Subaru/Seishirou. Omg, they are absolutely my favorite fictional couple ever, but still. Sei's dead and I figured that being Sakurazukamori, Subaru's been stuck alive all this time because he wouldn't love anyone else._

_P.S. Sorry for how short this one is ^^;_


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: Yeah another incredibly short chapter... my apologies. They're gonna get longer, I swear... _

_._

He was nothing like Kazuhiko. Despite years in the military, Kazuhiko had never had the bitter edge to him that underlined every move Seishirou made. Kazuhiko's smile had been warm and sincere, not cold and mocking like Seishirou's. Kazuhiko had been honest, and duty-bound and never broke the rules even when she could tell he wanted to. Maybe that's what she found so appealing about Seishirou though; he had no problem with breaking the rules, as though they didn't apply to him. She couldn't imagine loving someone who was this much of a sociopath, but she found herself drawn in by the adrenaline rush he offered.

.

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He was nothing like Kazuhiko. Kazuhiko had been distant with her too but not cold like this. She had been able to tell that Kazuhiko had been hurt before but Subaru seemed more than just hurt; there was a certain amount of humanity lost from him. It made her feel more comfortable with him; he was not a clover but he knew what it was like to be far away from everyone else too.


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: She totally is. _

_.  
_

Ora was kind of a nymphomaniac but he was okay with that. She had such a propensity to flirt that he wondered how her supposedly jealous soldier had put up with it. Then she had pulled him into her bed and suddenly it all made sense.

She laughed when he told her this and paused in putting on her lipstick. "He wasn't as possessive as you though."

"When have I ever acted possessive of you?"

"Oh not about me." She turned away from the mirror to face him. "But when you talk about Subaru, sometimes it's like you think of him as more of an object than a person. I mean you seem to see everyone that way but with him it's as if he belonged to you and only you."

"If only."

She laughed. "You were never very good at sharing were you?"

"I guess that's what happens when you're a rich only child."

"Or maybe just what happens when you're a total sadist." She turned back to the mirror and began hunting for her mascara.

"I'm not a sadist."

"I wish you would be more honest with yourself."

She hadn't even seen him move in the mirror when suddenly his grip on her wrist forced her to drop the mascara. He twisted her arms around her back so he could pin both wrists with one hand, leaving the other free to wander over her throat. He smiled at her expression in the mirror then whispered in her ear. "Be careful what you wish for."

Ora shivered as he walked away. They were both dead but she sometimes wondered if there was something more final beyond this lingering consciousness that she seemed to retain. Whenever she saw his eyes go dark like that, she felt with icy certainty that there was.

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The sun was just starting to come out when Sue woke up. She could see its faint light peeking in through the curtains of the hotel room. She quietly slipped out from under the covers and padded over to the window to peer out at it. She missed the singing of the mechanical birds in the morning sometimes; it had been reassuring. She let the curtain fall back into place and turned to gather up clothes to change into for the day. This time she wasn't surprised to see that the other bed was made and Subaru was nowhere to be seen. Every morning had been like that so far on their travels and she wondered if he ever really slept at night since she usually fell asleep first as well.

She wandered into the bathroom to get dressed, unconcerned and when she stepped back out found that he had returned and was sitting at the small table, drinking something and listening to the radio.

"Hungry?" he asked, turning it back down.

She nodded and joined him, staring curiously at the mug on her side of the table before cautiously taking a sip.

"Is something wrong? If you don't like it you don't have to eat it or anything…"

"No it's not that." She shook her head then hesitated. "What is this?"

"Oh it's hot chocolate; I figured you probably weren't much of a coffee drinker."

"Hot chocolate…" she tilted her head and then continued to drink it smiling.

"You've never had hot chocolate before?"

She shook her head.

He looked as though he wanted to ask something else for a moment then simply set down his mug and stood up. "We should get going as soon as you're ready."

"Okay."

He turned to tidy up the few things left on his side of the room.

"Subaru?"

"Mm?"

"Thank you. For the hot chocolate."

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_A/N: I apologize should anyone actually stumble across this random fic but it may be a while before I put up the next chapter as I'm having some trouble with the second half of it right now. -_-_


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note: My apologies, I had kind of forgotten about this story. ^^;; However I made a New Year's resolution which involves lots of writing so I'm going through all my files to see which stories I should start adding to in order to get up my word count for the day. :P So hopefully I'll start updating this one more often._

_Also I have a theory that Seishirou is hypoglycemic. I mean practically every time you see him in Tokyo Babylon he is eating and it's almost always something sweet, especially ice cream. My sister eats like that and craves ice cream that way and she's hypoglycemic... it's the sugar and the dairy. I could be totally wrong on that but it's fun to imagine. XD  
_

_._

Seishirou had been sitting at their usual spot at the bar staring off into space all evening. Ora had been watching him from the stage all evening, resisting the urge to stop singing and go ask him what was wrong; lethargy didn't suit him.

When her last number finally ended she was immediately assaulted by a small group of dedicated fans who had made their way here to see her in person after hearing her and Sue's song on the radio. She couldn't resist stopping and chatting with them, flirting with the cuter ones and teasing the younger ones. When they asked her to come spend more time with them, and tell them about her music, she found herself sorely tempted but declined, hoping they would stick around a few more days. She wanted to know herself what kind of people her songs had reached.

"You've gotten rather popular these days." Seishirou remarked as she slid onto the stool next to him.

"You know what they say about fame."

"I've tried to avoid it myself."

"Probably a good idea for your profession."

He let his head rest on the bar.

She turned, surprised. "Seishirou? Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

She felt his forehead. "You can't be sick, we're dead…"

He was silent for a moment then sighed and straightened up suddenly, smiling. "Let's get ice cream!"

She watched him put on his coat, thinking back on the past few days. "Seishirou?"

"Yes?"

"You wouldn't happen to be a sugar addict would you?"

He smiled over his shoulder at her.

She shook her head and got up, muttering. "All evening I've been worried and it turns out you're just craving sugar…"

There was a vendor on a bridge not far from her apartment that never seemed to close. The vendor had taken a liking to Ora as she had heard her singing out her window one day. She said that between her long hair and her voice, Ora reminded her a bit of her granddaughter. She gave them both the ice cream for free and they wandered across the bridge, staring out at the lights reflecting on the glassy black water.

"They look like fireflies." She said at last, leaning out over the railing as if hoping to capture one. "I remember when I was little seeing a movie where kids were catching fireflies in a jar and kept them as a nightlight by their beds. I always wanted to do that."

"Why didn't you?"

"There were no fireflies anymore when I was a child. The movie was really old."

"You mean they were extinct?"

"No, I'm sure they were still around somewhere but probably mostly in government labs like most real animals."

"Didn't people keep pets?"

"Sure, but real pets were extremely rare. Most people just had robotic animals if any. I guess you could say that the world only belonged to humans then. And by humans of course I mean the ones running the government. It almost seems like the rest of us were their pets."

Seishirou frowned. "Is that what you wanted Kamui?" he asked softly.

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

"Come on, tell me!"

He grinned. "I have a better idea."

"If it involves clothes, it's not a good idea."

"Fortunately it doesn't."

She laughed and pulled him back toward her building.

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Sue had gradually gotten more comfortable with asking Subaru questions over the past three days. He was taciturn most of the time, but his responses to direct questions were surprisingly gentle.

"Subaru?"

"Yes?"

"I've been wondering… why were you at Fairy Park that day?"

He hesitated and she wondered if she had stumbled upon the wrong question and undone the little comfort that had built up over the last three days.

"It was the anniversary of something that happened a long time ago."

"Of something that happened at Fairy Park?"

"No, there used to be a bridge there…" he trailed off quietly.

She studied his expression in silence. It never changed. It was as though his features had been chiseled into their current state. His mouth was set in a straight, noncommittal line, never smiling nor frowning and his eyes never seemed to quite focus on what was right in front of him, as though he were looking through some clouded lens smudged by something in the past. He did not look sad, as Sue had seen sadness before. He looked hopeless. Indifferent.

She reached out without thinking and brushed a hand against his cheek. He jumped as though he had forgotten she was there, backing away from the hand.

"We should go." He awkwardly announced.

Sue silently followed him out of the restaurant and to the train station, wondering if she had offended him in some way. Or worse, if she had touched some painful memory that he would have rather kept locked away in his own secretive heart.

They made their way to the railway station only to discover that their train had been delayed due to an "undisclosed accident".

"What does that mean?" Sue wondered aloud.

"When it's worded like that, it usually means that someone died on the railway tracks."

Sue stared up at him. "How? They're clearly marked aren't they?"

Subaru shrugged. "Sometimes people get pushed onto them, or jump onto them themselves."

Sue weighed these words carefully. She did not have to ask why someone would want to take their own life, but it was strange that they would do so at the cost of others.

She mentioned this to Subaru and he gave her a strange look but did not say a word.

When the train eventually arrived, they discovered that a number of people had decided to forgo that particular trip after all, feeling that it was unlucky or cursed. As a result, Sue and Subaru had their particular compartment all to themselves and shared it in silence. Until Subaru at long last turned to her.

"Why were you there that day?"

"At Fairy Park?"

"You knew it was going to be demolished didn't you."

She nodded.

Subaru parted his lips for a moment then closed them again, turning back toward the window to stare out at the passing scenery. "Nevermind. It's your own business."

Sue cocked her head to one side, letting wintery strands of hair, as light as his were dark, brush against her cheek but did not pry. It seemed like Subaru did not want to talk anymore and this was more than he had heard him say in one day already.

So she turned too, to stare out the window at factory smoke billowing in the distance like angry thunderclouds rolling through the sky.


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's Note: NaNoWriMo has officially begun! :D As part of the challenge to write 50,000 words over the course of November, I have decided to try to update every single one of my unfinished fanfics that up here so I want to go ahead and apologize now to those of you who subscribe to me and are getting all kinds of messages about me updating all at once. XD I'm also sorry if I'm pushing other deserving authors off of the front pages! :O I'm not trying to just crowd you guys out I swear!_

_._

Chapter 6

Ora sank into the water, letting her black curls dampen and cling to her shoulders. He had never had this much leisurely time when she was alive. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the cool, white tiles, staring meditatively at the fluorescent light above her until a dark shape caught her eye and she looked down to see Seishirou standing in the doorway, leaning casually against the doorframe, watching her.

"Well hello Mr. Tall-dark-and-handsome." She teased. "Care to join me?"

"No thanks."

"What's wrong, worried your suit will get wet." She stuck her tongue out. "There's a simple solution to that you know."

"If you're requesting that I perform a little striptease for you, I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

Ora sighed regretfully and stretched, making sure that her breasts were exposed just above the pearly surface of the bubbles.

Seishirou gave no sign that he even noticed however and she prickled slightly in irritation. "What did you come in here for?" She asked, trying to hold back the snap.

She didn't care for the way his lips curled ever so slowly into an icy smile.

"I ran into an interesting fellow earlier." He announced languidly.

Fear curled around her heart and the once warm bathwater seemed to chill around her.

"Oh?"

"Yes, he seemed to have been a soldier who recently died."

"Kazuhiko?" Ora leaned forward so quickly that water sloshed out of the tub as she gripped the edge of it.

"No, I'm afraid I didn't catch the man's name himself, however he was not Kazuhiko."

"How do you know?"

"I asked. He said he wasn't himself, but that he had met Kazuhiko not too long before he was killed."

Ora's fingers tightened on the cold porcelain of the bathtub. "What did he say about him?"

Seishirou raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. "That he's been on the move, travelling lately apparently."

"Travelling? On a mission?"

"So it would seem." Seishirou leaned forward a little. "Only… does Kazuhiko normally go on missions with young girls?"

Ora frowned in puzzlement. "Young girls?"

"Yes, funny thing about their last encounter. There was a young girl with him whom Kazuhiko seemed particularly fond of."

Ora felt paralyzed suddenly and slightly nauseated. "A young girl… what was her name?"

"Sue."

She stared at the bubbles, suddenly grateful that she was covered by them. She had only ever met one person by that name and the memories of all the times Ora had told her all about Kazuhiko and what a wonderful man he was suddenly came spilling back in.

"Look like your soldier moved on?"

Ora pulled her knees up to her chest. "Maybe. It's probably for the best though right?" She gave Seishirou a pleading look that went unanswered. "I mean, I never wanted him to spend the rest of his life miserable."

"But you didn't want him to fall in love with someone else."

A tear slid past her forced smile. "It's selfish and silly. But I guess that's just how love goes isn't it?"

To her surprise, Seishirou for once did not quite meet her eye.

.

.

The train had been stopped again, this time because ice had formed slick and dangerous cocoons around the rails.

_It's so cold… _Sue noted as they wandered down the street in search of temporary lodging. _I didn't know it got this cold in winter. _Then something cool and wet kissed her cheek and she glanced up at the dusty gray clouds rolled across the sky like an ancient duvet. Tiny drifts of white were fluttering through the air like dust brushed off them.

"Where is that coming from?" She asked Subaru, perplexed.

"Where is what coming from?"

"The white stuff."

Subaru froze and stared at her. "You mean the snow?"

Sue held out one hand and watched a few grains of the small white flecks gather in her palm like sand before swiftly melting, leaving a small drop of pooled water, cold against her skin. "Snow?"

"It's like rain but frozen." Subaru gave her an odd look. "You've never seen snow?"

Sue shook her head, fascinated. "It looks like sugar." She commented with a chord of delight in her voice.

Subaru stared as she stuck out the tip of her tongue to catch a gently drifting flake.

"We should get inside." He announced after a few moments. "It's getting colder."

Sue agreed and followed him into the hotel, a paragon of docility.

However, the next morning she glanced out the window and gasped in pleasure. The world was covered in a milky white blanket of untouched perfection.

"I guess the train won't be leaving today either." Subaru noted softly, joining her at the window, then seeing the way Sue stared with her hands pressed to the glass, asked if she wanted to go outside.

She nodded with more enthusiasm than he had ever seen her show and he suddenly realized that she was young. Certainly, she did not look past her mid teens but somehow it had never occurred to Subaru to think of her as young or innocent.

Once outside she gingerly stepped in the snow, her eyes widening in surprise at the slight crunch it made beneath her feet.

"Someone mentioned snow to me once." She remarked thoughtfully. "She said that she would go outside and make people out of it." She turned to Subaru with a baffled look. "How do you make people out of it?"

"Snowmen." He bent down and gathered up a bit of snow in the palm of his hand. It had been a very, very long time since he had played in snow and it brought back hazy memories of Hokuto in wintertime and snowball fights that left them both soaked and exhausted. He felt the corner of his mouth twitch just slightly. "You have to roll the snow in a ball." He explained, kneeling down beside Sue. "Well pack it into one more I guess."

Sue scooped up a small amount of snow and tried to roll it around in her palms but was surprised when it simply crumbled.

"Like this." Subaru picked up some snow himself and began packing it into a small ball before pressing it into her palm. "Now you roll more snow onto it." He gently moved her hands, showing her how to hold it just right. He got so caught up in the snowball didn't realize that Sue was watching his face more closely than his hands.

"Do you like snow?" She asked softly.

"Huh?"

"You seem like you really like the snow."

Subaru stared at the white powder beneath them. "I guess. It makes me remember my sister. We used to love playing in it together."

Sue had never heard Subaru speak of any family members and so had assumed all this time that like her, he did not have any. The discover that he did in fact have a sister, at least at some point in time, ignited her curiosity. If he did have a family after all, where were they?

At last Subaru had rolled his small snowball around enough that he had established a solid base for their snowman. He proceeded to help Sue create the midriff and then the head, showing her how to stick rocks in the snow for eyes and a mouth. At last they stepped back to admire their creation. The lopsided smile, the drooping left side that she had never been able to get quite right, the broken twig that served as a limp arm, it was all too much and Sue suddenly giggled.

Subaru turned to her in obvious shock. "What?"

"It's just… he looks so silly." She replied, trying to cover her mouth with one hand. "He doesn't really look much like a person does he?"

Subaru considered the snowman somberly for a moment, then stepped forward and much to Sue's surprise, unwound his own scarf and wrapped it around the awkward base of its head.

"There." He announced, returning to her side. "How does he look now?"

The wind caught the end of the scarf and blew it into the snowman's face, knocking away one of its makeshift eyes and Sue dissolved into more giggles.

"Perfect." She choked, doubled over with laughter. She was surprised to see when she finally sobered enough to straighten up, just the smallest hint of an upward curl to Subaru's lips. But the sun had since set and they were both hungry and shivering with cold, so he suggested that they head back inside.

Before they went to bed however, Sue made sure to look out the window and check on their snowman. He was still outside beneath a streetlamp, scarf billowing around him, steadfastly waiting and holding his ground despite his many imperfections. To Sue, he was wonderful.


	7. Chapter 7

Days passed with strangely variable speed in the afterlife, as both Seishirou and Ora had long since noted. It seemed that perspective affected the world even more heavily here than it had in life. Or perhaps it affected it the same way, and they only wanted to believe that it was different here. It was hard to say for sure. At any rate, they had the strange sensation of having been companions for years and yet having only just met.

As a result, they had developed a tendency to wander a bit through… well wherever they were. Neither of them was sure still and as neither of them was particularly philosophical, they did not spend a great deal of time dwelling on the subject. Instead they explored, not out of particularly curiosity regarding their surroundings, but out the much baser boredom that had taken them each over. Seishirou had jokingly called them both restless souls once, and Ora had agreed, although with less amusement than she might have once. Ever since the discovery of Kazuhiko's possible new romance, she had become considerably less vibrant than before.

It was on another of their aimless walks that they met a most unusual woman. The two had come across a field of strange purple flowers, that upon closer inspection, proved to be thousands of tiny swallowtail butterflies in every shade of purple from the palest blanched lavender to the darkest midnight violet. Strangely however, not a single butterfly moved, leading the two to believe at first that they were in fact fake, merely paper illusions, until Ora lightly brushed the tip of her finger of the one of the butterflies wings. It twitched slightly, then readjusted itself on the bare stem, looking as ornamental as ever.

"They're beautiful." Ora breathed, a bit of her happily child-like nature glimmering through the veil of depression for once.

Seishirou was less fascinated by the insects however, and looked more wary of the field.

"What's wrong?" she stepped a little closer to him.

"Who's there?" He called warily.

A woman's voice chuckled and the wings of the butterflies rustled.

Seishirou stiffened.

"Seishirou, isn't it?" A woman with long trailing strands of black hair appeared in the tenebrous field some yards away.

"I don't believe we have had the pleasure of meeting." He replied coolly.

She gave a positively terrifying smirk as she approached and leaned in close, tilting his chin up to get a better look at him. "Hm, no, I guess it wasn't this you, but the other one that I met." She replied then gave him a teasing smile. "You're too old to be the version of you that I met. But then" she laughed "most people are older and no longer the same person I met before when our paths cross again."

"Who are you?"

"Call me Yuko. It's not my real name of course, but who would ever give their real name to one like you?" she laughed.

"How did you know he was an assassin?" Ora queried.

"An assassin?" Yuko raised an eyebrow at her before turning back to Seishirou. "Is that what you became in that life? Well that's appropriate." She flashed a grin at Ora once more. "I had no idea what he did for a living back when, you know, he was actually still living. I just know better than to share personal information with anyone, especially someone I have no doubts is dangerous in all of his lives." She winked at Seishirou. "You were a vampire hunter when I met you. Very sexy profession. Or maybe it was just the glasses. I always have had a thing for men with glasses."

Ora giggled. "I know what you mean. It's part of what got me about Kazu-" she broke off, leaving the three of them in abrupt silence.

Before it could stretch on for an uncomfortably long time however, Seishirou at last spoke up again.

"And what is it that _you _did while you were alive."

"Ah, now _that,_" she began in a serious, foreshadowing tone that had both Ora and Seishirou leaning forward slightly and holding their breaths despite themselves, "is a secret!" She finished triumphantly and the other two glanced at one another, silently asking the other if they too thought that perhaps this woman was not entirely sane.

"Besides." Yuko continued, ignoring their incredulous looks. "It wasn't what I did _before_ I died that was interesting."

"You've been doing something here that's interesting?" Ora at least was still willing to hear her out.

"No, unless you count sitting around in this field as interesting." Yuko gave them a look of pained boredom. "It was while I was stuck in between that I worked in wish sales as it were."

Ora immediately imagined red lights and seedy street corners but Seishirou's eyes narrowed for an entirely different reason.

"The Space-Time Witch."

She grinned. "Sharp as your counterpart I see."

Ora looked between the two of them. "The what?"

"The Space-Time Witch. It was a title of mine you could say." The mysterious woman fingered the stem of a particularly vibrant flower. "I granted wishes, still can actually, but always at a price."

Ora opened her mouth to speak but before her lips could form the words, the woman's features fell into a grave and lonely expression.

"I cannot give you what you want to ask for." Yuko plucked the flower and the butterflies that made up the petals, scattered in a flurry of violet wings, leaving her with an empty stem. "Something lost can never be regained. There are no paths back to the person that you have once been."

"Then what do we do now?" Ora asked.

Yuko stared at the stem, wilting in her fingertips as if lost without the butterflies. "We keep moving forward."

Silence fell over the field and it struck Ora then how silent butterflies could be, that thousands of them would make no sound, not even that of paper wings rustling in the wind.

"What if what lies ahead isn't a place we want to go?" Seishirou spoke the words that none of them wanted to say.

"Only a fool would allow themselves to get stuck."

"Like you did." He replied.

Ora stared at the sky above her, wondering at the inky blankness of it. "We are all fools then."

.

.

The snow had cleared up enough that they had at last been able to reach old Tokyo and now Sue and Subaru found themselves trudging through the slush toward another train station. It was strange, Subaru thought, to be headed to the capital, and yet to pass through Tokyo. It had been decades and yet he could not adjust to the shift of power. Then again, what about this new Japan had he adjusted to at all. Lost in his own thoughts, it was several yards before he realized that the dull crunch of grimy snow and concrete beneath his boots had lost its companion. He paused and looked back to see Sue standing before a dilapidated wrought-iron gateway.

"What is this?" She wondered aloud as Subaru approached her.

"A park."

"But there are no roller coasters or attractions."

Subaru shook his head. "Not a theme park, just a park."

"What does one come here for?"

"Nothing anymore, by the looks of it." Subaru stared at the name engraved in the stone columns on either side of the gates. Though eroded away nearly into oblivion, he could still just make out the grooves of the characters.

_Ueno._

"What did people come here for once then?"

Subaru closed his eyes. "Once, people came here to enjoy the trees and nature."

Sue's eyes widened. "Trees were once a luxury to be enjoyed on a regular basis?" She lay a hand on the gate. "But only a few, right? That's why it's gated off like this?"

"No, the gate must have been added to keep people out at night. It used to be wide open to the public at all times."

Sue gazed inside with wonder.

"Will you enter with me?"

That was it, no question of was she allowed to enter, no question of would she. Only the question of whether he would he join her.

"Yes."

The gates gave readily at her touch, as though they had been waiting all this time for her to arrive and they entered the park, which Subaru noted was far more grim within than it had appeared from outside. The grass was bare in spots where it looked as though chemicals had burned it away, leaving ugly patches between overgrown and viciously thorny looking weeds. The concrete had cracked and eroded into crumbling pieces that looked more designed to trip unwary trespassers than to facilitate visitors. A bench had been blown over by the wind at some point and lay with its rusted legs in the air like a dead and pathetic insect. Even the light was grayer, filtered by ashen leaves from gnarled trees.

Yet Sue made her way through the wreckage without hesitation, looking around with only curiosity.

"It didn't always look like this." Subaru felt the need to explain, to justify.

"Things change." Sue replied absent-mindedly then paused, staring at something a few feet away.

Subaru followed her gaze to the sakura tree standing alone, away from the rest of the groves, with no grass, no flower, not even any weeds, surrounding it. He supposed he should not have been surprised to see that it was thriving amid the chaos and destruction.

"The petals… Sue wandered over the tree and reached up to touch a blossom. "Why are they pink?" she wondered aloud, stroking the delicate petals lovingly. "Every sakura I've ever seen has only had all white blossoms."

Subaru was silent for so long that she began to think that he had not heard her, or simply did not want to answer and she turned to look at him expectantly. At last he spoke up.

"They used to all be pink. A long time ago."

The petal drifted away and Sue raised her head to admire the blossoms still clinging to the wiry branch. "They're beautiful."

Subaru felt his features twist into a vague semblance of grief.

"I used to think so too."

"Do you not anymore?"

"Knowing the price of beauty can mar the beauty itself."

Sue turned to study him again with a far more intense, calculating gaze, reminding him again that she was no mere romantic teenage girl.

"Or could it let you appreciate that beauty more? Wouldn't looking past the aesthetics be an insult to the sacrifices that were already made? Refusing to see the beauty in the result won't return things to the way they were." She plucked a single, especially vibrant flower and held it close. "You can't bring back the people whose blood made these petals so lovely."

Subaru started. "How did you know-"

"I can hear them." Sue closed her eyes. "It's like the faint voices of their souls are still echoing amid the branches.

"What are they saying?" Subaru approached her slowly, magnetically.

"Different things." She opened her eyes and only then did he realize how close they were standing. If he wanted to, he could reach out and-

"We should go." She announced suddenly. "We'll miss the train."

Subaru followed her out of the park, pausing only once to glance back at the sakura tree in wonder.


	8. Chapter 8

When Ora awoke, she was immediately struck by the delicious smell of something sweet.

"Oho, what's the occasion?" She wondered aloud as she wandered into the kitchen. Once upon a time she had wondered how it was Seishirou was always able to get into her apartment regardless of whether or not it was locked. But those thoughts had led her to realize that she could not always remember living in an apartment, and suddenly the strange gaps in her memories where she could not say what she had been doing, or if she had even still been existing, had frightened her away from conscious pondering.

"I just thought we should have a proper breakfast before setting out on a proper adventure today."

"A proper adventure?" Ora took a seat, watching him cheerfully pour another round of batter into the pan.

"Well, there isn't much point in sticking around here all day now is there?"

"Are there really days here?"

He glanced at her over her shoulder and she shuddered, recalling that that was another subject that she preferred to shy away from. Time, it seemed, was far more slippery here as well and the thought that it was not flowing in any particular order or at any particular rate was disorienting at best.

His point made, he expertly flipped one last pancake onto the enormous stack beside him, snatched a bowl full of strawberries and whipped cream and glided across the kitchen to slide smoothly into a seat at the table.

"So this adventure..."

"Mmhm?"

"Is it dangerous?"

"It might very well be." He grinned as he drenched a pancake in syrup.

"Good."

.

.

They were on a train once more. Sue reflected that it was strange, sitting here completely stationary and yet getting somewhere. It made travelling seem somehow less like travelling and more like not going anywhere at all.

"Subaru?"

It took a moment for her companion to stir from his reverie. "Hm?" He turned to her with that distant look, as if his body was here but his mind was still far away.

"Why are the sakura white now?"

His gaze sharpened slightly. "What?"

"You said that they used to be pink but now they're not. I thought maybe it had to do with pollution but I can't think of any reason that that would turn them white."

Subaru stared past her out the window at the forest of steel beyond. "They're naturally white actually."

"Then why were they pink at one time?"

"Have you ever heard of the Sakurazukamori?"

Sue shook her head and Subaru gave an odd look.

"Really? Well it's a legend I guess you could say. An old one."

Sue watched him with rapt attention.

"They used to say that the reason the sakura turned pink was because there were bodies buried beneath the sakura trees and the trees drank their blood. The Sakurazukamori was supposedly the one who put them there."

"Supposedly?"

"It's only a legend." Subaru turned to look out the window again.


End file.
